Chiyo’s fan was looking at the nickname section on Chiyo’s wiki.
[Kimchi, Kim Chiyo, Kimchi Sushi, Ms. Kim Jisu, Kim Jisu...]
And the newly added one.
[Water Kimchi]
“Mm...”
—Tap-tap-tap
First, she deleted Water Kimchi.
“Chiyo, watch over me! I’m protecting your nickname section...!”
Of course, there was no way her playful muttering would reach her. In truth, it wasn’t even that hard to stop.
[Today’s Akaraka Chiyo slipping accident video]
—Oh noo... That thud sounded so loud
—It must’ve hurt, but she got up right away. I’m glad she wasn’t injuredㅜㅜ
—Aigoo... Cha Jihun fell onstage in the rain last time too and went to the emergency room
To begin with, the K-pop communities that formed public opinion tended to have a female-dominated sensibility, so they were fairly empathetic.
—(Water Kimchi lol — deleted comment.)
└What the hell?? Are they insane?
└There goes my faith in humanity, seriously
Comments that simply made fun of her were bound to get dogpiled quickly.
And apart from all that, Chiyo’s fan no longer felt stressed about Chiyo’s nicknames.
At first, sure, she had wanted a pretty, sophisticated nickname that suited Chiyo’s kitschy image and appearance.
But now this side felt more familiar and even cuter.
It wittily expressed Chiyo’s lovable personality, too.
“Besides, water kimchi has the water attribute, so it feels more like a healing type. Mm-hmm, Chiyo is healing type. Chiyo-heal, Chiyo-heal, kyahahak.”
It seemed she had gone a little strange herself, but anyway.
At any rate.
She was now waiting for the music video for the second title track, “New Vibes,” which would be released today.
The teaser had been released a few days ago.
The members clinking melon soda and cocktails in a cheers.
A summer mood with the blue sea as the backdrop.
Hip-looking clothes.
“The original water kimchi served up by Chiyo...!”
There was no way she wouldn’t be excited.
“—No, I mean refreshing summer vibes!”
And above all, since the album was being officially released, all the fans had already checked the track list that was revealed first.
That was right.
Beside the track list and song information, the participants in each song were naturally listed as well.
[New Vibes Lyrics/— Storns, Lee Dohui, Chiyo, Ua, Welly Jr]
“A song where she participated in writing lyrics for the first time...! And three of them, too!”
From what she’d heard, Dohui said she wasn’t confident in writing lyrics, so she wouldn’t participate—what had happened?
If Chiyo had participated, she was certain it would be the rap part!
And she couldn’t even imagine what Ua’s part would feel like.
At six o’clock, along with that excitement, the music video was released.
Debonair’s second title track “New Vibes” music video began with the blue sea.
Only, the time of day was evening.
To a guitar riff, the members stood on a breakwater with the beautiful sunset and sea at their backs, showing only their silhouettes as they rode the rhythm.
The screen zoomed in, and just as she realized who each shadowy figure was—
A member appeared, standing with her back to a nighttime road where streetlights glittered.
And when she turned around, Chiyo’s fan’s pupils dilated.
‘This time Dohui has the opening!’
A fluorescent short-sleeved T-shirt and short shorts.
Long, straight hair let down, plus twin bun accents for extra emphasis.
Dohui was showing off a lime neon fashion that was the hardest of all to pull off.
Truthfully, back in the Saveun days, she hadn’t been a fan of Dohui or even of Saveun.
But after becoming a Debonair fan through Chiyo, Dohui had already become her second bias.
And Dohui’s styling today was definitely something even longtime fans had probably never seen before.
“Seriously, how is Dohui hot every single time...? Wh-what is this... I’m gonna get a nosebleed.”
Of course, there was no time to breathe.
[To the DEB, to the DEB]
Because Dohui stepped forward provocatively and spat out the catchphrase rhythmically, matching the hand she waved overhead.
[All the lit girls get down with the DEB, hey!]
—All the amazing girls dance, together with DEB!
“What, I already like it.”
Even as she reacted out loud, she briefly read the kindly translation running along the bottom thanks to the subtitles she’d forgotten to turn off.
Then all the members appeared again.
In a white space, wearing crop tops, ribbed pants, glow-in-the-dark pants, basketball jerseys, and more.
The members, dressed in all kinds of hipness, held each other by the waists and walked forward to the rhythm like they were playing train.
And at the very front, the member who showed unmistakable pop vocals today as well was leading the rhythmic atmosphere.
It was Seoyun.
[Step with my girls to the party(gon' step)]
—I step into the party with my friends
[Not here to cause a fuss, buddy(buddy)]
—I’m not really here to make a scene
[We just wanna have a good times(good time)]
—We just came to have a good time
[Groovin our body body(ayy)]
—Let your body move with the rhythm
And after those lyrics with their stable resonance, a clearer, higher-toned voice followed.
Naeun, sitting on the edge of a darkened stage, checked a message on an old 2G phone, then glanced at the camera with her eyebrows.
[See me gettin' down on the show(On the show)]
—Did you see me dancing on the show?
[I walked into to the Stage(Stage)]
—I jumped onto the stage
[I just groove a new vibes]
—I just showed you a new vibe
[they ask me how I do that]
—Everyone wonders how I do it
And finally.
“Chiyo...!”
Wearing only jeans and a sleeveless shirt more hiply than anyone else.
Her hair held up with a headband more hiply than anyone else.
Her ultimate bias.
It was Chiyo’s turn.
Unlike the image she usually showed in front of the camera, and contrary to her cute Korean pronunciation.
Chiyo, alone on top of a truck, on an ascending escalator, beneath a bridge—
In all sorts of places, she stepped to the beat, added hand gestures and smiles, and absolutely killed her English rap.
[Slieded on the floor and I'm killin' it]
—When I step onto the floor, I’m a little different
[city lights gleamin', the night's our exhibit]
—When the city lights glitter, the night is our exhibition
[Chillin' with my girls, no stress, no limit]
—Hanging out with my friends, no stress, no limits
[Livin' for the moment, every second we own it]
—Living fully in the day
[Don't you get too dizzy tryna keep up with me]
—No need to scramble trying to keep up with me
[ I didn't mean to displease, this fast is my other lane]
—I didn’t mean to offend you; this pace is my path
[Yeah, make heart pound with the get down]
—Yeah, make your heart pound as you dance
[In your zone, where the vibe's so key]
—In your own feeling, where the vibe is key
For nearly twenty seconds.
Only then did a new background appear, along with the chorus.
With a blue garden and flowing fountain behind them, Seoyun and Naeun built the rhythm with their stable vocals.
[I just grooved a new steps, new dance, new vibes]×4
The members showed off the point choreography.
It was a move where they crossed both hands as if lightly patting perfume sprayed on their wrists.
And once again, the verse before Chiyo’s rap from the first verse repeated.
This time, with Ua jumping high into the sky and shouting as the starting point.
[To the DEB, to the DEB
All the lit girls get down with the DEB, hey-!]
—All the amazing girls dance, together with DEB!
A hip-hop vibe from the Debonair members that she hadn’t expected at all.
And yet it didn’t feel awkward; it was comfortable, pleasant to listen to, and fun to watch!
“...A total summer song...! This is seriously insane...!”
Of course, the members’ personalities were cheerful, cool-girl types that suited hip-hop quite well, but their ability to pull off the song was a separate matter.
“No, but, Top East, how the hell did you do this!!!”
That included the fact that they’d brought in a song like this.
If she dared say so, it was good enough to rival Dohui’s self-composed song “Sweet Demon.”
The difference between the two was whether it was addictive or the ultimate easy listening.
People would probably be pretty divided in their opinions.
“Sweet Demon” was in its third week since release, but with its addictiveness alone, it was already showing signs of becoming a record-breaking mega-hit.
Meanwhile, “New Vibes” felt like it could ride the summer effect and become a seasonal mega-hit that people would return to again and again!
And in the video, the same melody had started playing before she knew it.
The beat that had carried Chiyo’s rap!
“Is Chiyo rapping again...!?”
Of course, with the line distribution, that couldn’t be.
Ua slid smoothly onto the screen with gliding footsteps.
Surprisingly, Ua’s rap followed.
But it had a unique feeling different from Chiyo’s.
[First thing you gotta do what you wanna do is]
—First, what you have to do, what you want to do, is
It was what people called singing rap, closer to melodic hip-hop.
[Slide to the left and Slide to the right (Woo)]
[Dip your hips low with me, babe (Oh)]
Because she was expressing her own light groove shown on-screen—
Her movements and dance—in the lyrics.
“Oh, right...! Ua said she participated in the choreography for all the title tracks, didn’t she?”
The lyrics clearly contained that process.
They brought out Ua’s own distinctive color.
And right then, at Ua’s beckoning gesture—
[And come on close, let your speak (Now)]
—And come closer and speak to me
Dohui spun once and approached.
The background changed to a rooftop.
Dohui tilted her head slightly to the side and began riding the rhythm.
At the same time, the members on-screen surrounded Dohui and began clapping for her.
It felt as if they were saying, Aww, our youngest is doing so well.
Chiyo’s fan laughed at the cute scene.
But the colorful sky reflected on the unusually damp rooftop floor, shining like a mirror, matched incredibly well with the rap lyrics Dohui spat out while bobbing along.
[My life is an overture, longer than you think
We reflect each other, the mirror of these lyrics
Someone said, I don’t want to grow old like the living dead.]
And because she even nailed the offbeat at the end, it sounded good too.
“Oh, come to think of it, that’s the first Korean, isn’t it?”
Thinking about it, those were the first Korean lyrics in this song that had only been in English so far.
That made it feel especially fresh!
Moreover, now she found herself admiring Debonair’s producer too.
Because by the time Dohui’s rap ended, the vocals pushed into the screen.
[I just grooved a new steps, new dance, new vibes]×4
The sounds overlapped, raising the emotion that generation could show to the limit.
On top of that, in the bridge that came after the chorus—
A new pop melody appeared.
The tropical summer night seeping from Seoyun and Naeun’s vocals.
Film colors and camerawork like an indie movie.
The members stepping in a darkened bowling alley.
Chiyo’s English rap layered on once more without giving any time to rest.
The screen changed fantastically, then burst open with the high notes raised by the two vocalists.
The final chorus began.
The members’ smiles grew even more joyful.
Their hand movements became larger.
Ayy! Ayy! Ayy! cheers were added in the background.
A song of summer more exciting than anything else.
The taste of summer and a happy sensation hit all at once.
The song and video that had made her entire body bounce ended—
When, before she knew it, the water splashed by the members, who were no longer on the beach or atop the breakwater but dipping their feet in the sea,
splashed blue onto the camera as well, soaking the hearts of those watching.
“Wow...”
The pleasant level of completion and the visual beauty.
She could only keep exclaiming in admiration.
And the community was heated again today.
* * *
Why was the sunlight so hot today, of all days?
“Ha, I met the wrong member and now I’m suffering like hell.”
“Hing...”
Chiyo was pouting as she watched Dohui grumble.
That didn’t mean she had anything to say in response.
It was a schedule that had happened because of her.
“Hey, Dongchimi!”
“I’m comin’!”
She didn’t know what dongchimi was, but it was definitely calling her, so Chiyo ran over.